Vertu Ti: The £14,200 mobile phone

British smartphone brand Vertu has launched it’s latest luxury handset costing as much as £14,200 – and that’s before you’ve even topped up.

The range topping ‘Ti’ is made from 18 carat red gold, black titanium, ceramic and leather, and is hand-crafted in Hampshire.

It’s one of four models available in different materials with prices starting from £6,800 for the most basic device.

The ‘Ti’ is the manufacturer’s first Android offering but only runs version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich of Google’s operating system, not the newer 4.2 Jelly Bean.

Meanwhile there is no HD display and no 4G connectivity leaving it trumped by devices costing a fraction of the price, such as the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 or Google Nexus 4.

The ‘Ti’ still has some way to go before being considered one of the world’s most expensive mobile phones, like the Diamond Crypto Smartphone at a hardly believable £834,189.

Covered in 50 gemstones it features encryption technology which its Russian manufacturers say will “provide secure protection of information against kidnapping, technological blackmail, financial racketeers and corrupted state officials.”

The Diamond Crypto started life as a Sony Ericsson T68 (Picture: JSC Ancort)